University of Antique
Sibalom, Antique
GEC 7- ETHICS
CHAPTER 4- MORAL THEORIES
Introduction:
Moral theories determine a theory of the right. They tell us what we ought to do morally.
Furthermore, these are the fundamentals that govern our behaviors and actions in certain situations.
Learning outcomes:
 Discuss the various moral theories such as virtue ethics, egoism, oriental tradition, Christian
ethics, Marxism, existentialism.
 Describe Filipino ethics.
LESSON 1: Ancient
A. Virtue Ethics
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle suggested the possibility of an ethics built around the formation of
character through the acquisition and practice of virtues. The other term for virtue is excellence. Aristotle
posited four things about virtue: first, one must exercise reason in determining virtue; second, virtue is
found in the middle of two extremes; third, virtue must be practiced repeatedly; and fourth, virtue is
needed in achieving the purpose of human life, which he called eudaimonia or happiness.
For Aristotle, human persons are rational beings which means that human beings are defined by their
ability to reason. Reason aids humans in deciding what good must be done or be pursued. Each action,
therefore, is accompanied by deliberation or weighing of options. Virtue, he said, is the middle between
two extremes. Take for example the virtue of courage.
According to Aristotle, a person who truly possesses the virtue of courage is someone who acts neither
without fear (rashness) nor with absolute fear (cowardice) but with moderate amount of fear. To act
virtuously, therefore, is always to choose the middle between two possible excesses and, as previously
pointed out, the faculty of reason facilitates such choice. This is essentially Aristotle’s doctrine of the
Golden mean. A person needs to rely constantly on rational faculty to help him or her assess constantly
changing circumstances and adjust his or her mean accordingly. This ability to act with moderation,
according to Aristotle, is derived from phronesis or practical wisdom. In the realm of ethics, nothing
illustrates the indispensable role of reason than the exercise of such faculty.
The third aspect of Aristotle’s virtue ethics involves constancy and excellence. To be constant is to commit
oneself to a worthy undertaking repeatedly. To be excellent means to strive towards an ever-improving
degree of perfection in doing a particular activity.
The fourth aspect of Aristotelian ethics pertains to happiness or eudaimonia. Happiness is the ultimate
purpose of life. Like everything within the Aristotelian ethical framework, life itself has a purpose but
unlike other purposes, it is considered supreme. Happiness, for Aristotle, is not simply the satisfaction one
gets from eating a good dinner or viewing a superb piece of art. Following his teleological notion of ethics,
Aristotle thought of happiness as the fulfillment of human life.
For Aristotle, happiness is the chief purpose of human life but it is different from other purposes because it
does not serve a purpose other than itself. Hence, happiness is aptly considered the ultimate end because it
is the only purpose for which all other purposes can be attained. A person is deemed happy upon achieving
the purposes of all his or her tasks and is able to reach a point of being content in knowing that his or her
life is complete.
B. Egoism
All forms of egoism require explication of “self-interest” (or “welfare” or “well-being”).
Egoism can be a descriptive or a normative position.
Psychological egoism, the most famous descriptive position, claims that each person has but one ultimate
aim: her own welfare.
Normative forms of egoism make claims about what one ought to do, rather than describe what one does
do.
Ethical egoism claims I morally ought to perform some action if and only if, and because, performing that
action maximizes my self-interest.
Rational egoism claims that I ought to perform some action if and only if, and because, performing that
action maximizes my self-interest.
Psychological egoism claims that each person has but one ultimate aim: her own welfare.
LESSON 2: Medieval
A. Christian Ethics
There are at least six frames of reference within which the term has been used.
(1) the best in the moral philosophy of all ages and places
(2) the moral standards of Christendom
(3) the ethics of the Christian Church and its many churches
(4) the ethics of the Bible
(5) the ethics of the New Testament
(6) the ethical insights of Jesus.
Christian Ethics: Our Common Moral Heritage
.
We may define this common moral heritage as anything from an attitude to a conscience, but
however we define it, we are aware that some moral absolutes do exist outside ourselves.
Christian Ethics: A Common Moral Standard
Christian morality is founded on the conviction that an absolute moral order exists outside of, and
yet somehow is inscribed into, our very being. This morality is not arbitrarily handed down by God to
create difficulties for us.
Here are the Functions of Christian moral
MAJOR PROPONENTS OF CHRISTIAN ETHICS:
A. St. Augustine (354-430)
 His literary output covers the entire sphere of human thought and ranges from the psychological
complexity of the confessions, to the political insights of the City of God, to the stridently
polemical.
B. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
He believed that:
 Every agent acts for an end.
 Every agent acts for a good.
 All things are directed to one end, which is God.
 Man’s happiness does not consist in wealth, worldly power, and goods of the body.
 Human happiness is not seated in the senses.
 Man’s ultimate happiness is not in this life.
If man’s ultimate happiness consists not in external things, which are called goods of chance; nor
in goods of body; nor in goods of soul, as regards the sensitive faculty ; nor as regards the intellectual
faculty, in the practice of moral virtue; nor as regards the intellectual virtue in those which are concerned
about action, namely art and prudence. Thomas Aquinas concluded the man’s ultimate happiness consists
solely in the contemplation of God who is the truth.
LESSON 3: Modern
A. Marxism
Karl Marx
Marxism
 Our place in the society determine our consciousness
 Study the relationship between a text and society that reads it.
 Focuses on class relations and societal conflict.
 People’s experiences are responsible for shaping and developing an individual personal’s
consciousness
Karl Marx wrote very little directly in the subject of ethics. His writings on history, economics,
and politics offer a perspective on the nature of society that embodies a conception of justice highly
critical on the practices as well as most of the theories of modern civilization.
The manuscript contain no mention of his solution to the economic, political, and ethical
problems in society; namely the realization following a revolution by the proletariat (workers), of an ideal
classless society. The key concept in his analysis is the notion of alienation or estrangement.
Marx sees the modern industrial workers as being almost totally alienated and, as result as living
a life that can only be charitably described as human. This deplorable condition is no fault of the worker
but the inevitable result of the entire social structure generated and maintained by bourgeois capitalism.
Assumptions
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Marxism is not primarily a literary theory that can be used to interpret a text.
It is a set of social, economic, and political ideas that its followers believe will enable them to
interpret and more importantly, change the world.
Marxism is material not spiritual
The structure if our society is built on a series of ongoing conflicts between social classes.
Capitalist control the society’s ideology or social consciousness.
B. Existentialism
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Existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes individual existence, freedom and choice.
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It emphasizes that the only route to truth in the sphere of human existence is through the
individual persons own personal participation
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Man must start with his own existence
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Existentialists believe that “existence precedes essence”
EXISTENTIALISTS
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Existentialists stress the possibility of the transition from false to genuine modes of existence
JEAN-PAUL SARTRE
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Jean-Paul Sartre was in 1905 in Paris.
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He completed his education in France and went to Berlin to study German philosophy
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Sartre was a great thinker who was profoundly sensitive to ontological problems, a master of
dialectic and a really great psychologist
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Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964 where he refused to accept.
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Sartre visualized “existence precedes essence”
•
His contention was that we have no common human nature or essence but that we were thrown in
the world to make ourselves what we can.
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Man prefers to be what he is by the plan which he has chosen.
GABRIEL MARCEL
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Marcel’s philosophical development has been influenced by a radical rebellion against the
subjectivist and idealistic conceptions of modern philosophy.
•
He presented a descriptive insight and sharp analysis on the inauthentic existence of modern mass
society in a “broken world”.
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Marcel believes that the basic human existential are rational in structure. Human existence is in
the world with others, or intersubjective, and constantly in a dynamic situation.
MARTIN BUBER
•
Buber was highly critical of much about modern society. He discarded the dreadful potentialities
of society for denying the reality of personal existence.
•
He criticized modern society’s frightful abuse of mass communication and patronizing industrial
techniques which dehumanized and depersonalized him.
Buber states that there are two attitudes toward the world:
1. I-THOU
(THE WORLD OF REALIZATION)
Establishes the world of relation, reciprocity, and mutuality.
2. I-IT
(THE WORLD OF PERCEPTION)
Establishes the world of experience, use, and objects.
MARTIN HEIDEGGER
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For Heidegger, the horizons of pure theory are broader and its structural knowledge clearer.
ANGST (Dread or Anxiety)
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Anxiety is the most primordial way in which the spirit can relate itself to itself.
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The primary of anxiety is especially adopted to exhibit the analysis of mood’s authenticity
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It is generally held to be a negative feeling arising from the experience of human freedom and
responsibility.
DASEIN
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Dasein is to be there. To be there is to be in the world. The being of dasein is not “is” but “to be”
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For Heidegger, the essence of men lies in his existence. He employed the term “dasein” indicative
and is a determinate whatness but rather a mode of being (sein) always proceeding from a certain
position (da) into which he has been thrown.
THE THEY
•
Heidegger defines conscience that the dasein issues to itself. It calls itself in the mode of keeping
silent from fallenness into the “they” to it’s own potentiality to being.
TRUTH (ALETHEIA)
•
Truth is centered in a man. Heidegger censures the relational concept of truth as concurrence of
thought or discretion as a thing related to other things.
SORGE
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There are no non conative events in human life as it is lived. Heidegger uses the term “care”
(sorge) to express this this conative structure.
•
There is a three-fold order of human existing (the structures of care): first, is ahead of itself,
second, as already in the world ( I myself, and that which I care for, already exist in the world)
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Heidegger defines care as ahead-of-itself-being-already-in-the-world-as-being alongside entities
which he encounters within the world.
LESSON 4: Oriental Tradition
The three Oriental Sages:
Buddha - (563-483 B. C.)
Lao Tzu - (circa the 6th century B. C.)
Confucius - (circa 4th century B. C.)
Buddha
There is only one absolute, uni0versal all-pervading Reality, Brahma, in which all things are one.
Man, therefore, in reality was united originally with Brahma and is called a Brahman. However, because
of the accident of being born into this earthly life, he naturally acquired an individual self (atman) and
identified with a mortal body at birth, and thus was separated from his universal Brahman self.
According to him, the selfishness and uncontrollable fleshly impulses of a man endangered by his
passions are the root cause of human misery and suffering. Hence, man, in order to be happy, must
liberate himself of this selfishness, subjugate his baser instincts by self-restraint or denial, and in so doing
he acquires virtue.
Lao Tzu
Work the importance of the virtues of humility, self-negation and absolute calm or quietism in the face of
misfortune or calamity or even death.
Man should avoid display and self assertion; he should be humble, modest, calm, ready to meet
misfortunes in life and fearless even in death.
Man rises above his bodily desires because his spirit is stronger than matter.
Confucius
There are a few core values for Confucianism. One is called Jen, it prioritizes Human Heartedness,
goodness, benevolence, dignity for the human life, and last but not least, characteristics that make
humans, humans (something that makes them what they are, human). Li, the other value, is the principle
of gain, benefit, order, priority, and the concrete guide to human action. There are 2 meaning of Li. The
first meaning is the ways things should be done in one’s social life. For example the relations the father to
son should be that the father loves the son and the respects the father. Other examples are; elder brother
younger brother (gentle/respectful), husband and wife (good/listening), older friend and younger friend
(considerate/deferential), ruler and subject (benevolent/loyal). Finally, respect for the aged and elderly.
The second sense of li is the principle of social order; comply with the norms of Jen.
Also, another main value of confucianism is yi, another key core value of confucianism. Yi focuses
on the righteousness, which is a necessary condition for a superior man. Yi implies a moral sense,
which is the ability to decide what is right or wrong. Another idea that yi focuses on is that some
actions ought to be performed for the sole reason that they are right, not for the sake or good of
someone or something else. Another key aspect of confucianism is the hsiao, which keeps its focus
on respect. Parents are to be respected because they are the sources of your life. One must feel
obliged to do well and make the family known and respected, and giving your parents emotional,
physical, and spiritual richness.
Chih is the value of moral wisdom. Chih says that man has the potential to be good for confucius.
Chun-tzu is another value that symbolizes the ideal, superior man. A man must be intelligent
enough to meet anything without fear. The final value of confucianism is te, which is the power of
moral example where men rule. A government is said to be good if it can maintain economic
sufficiency, military sufficiency, and earn the confidence of the people.
LESSON 5: Filipino Ethics
What do Filipinos value?
The family
The family is at the center of the Filipino community. Children are not expected to leave their parents’
house until they themselves get married; and even after then, many couples opt to stay with or close to
their or their spouse’s parents.
They’re expected to care for their ageing parents instead of sending them to a retirement home.
The value that Filipinos put into caring for one’s family can also be seen as one of the reasons why nurses
and caregivers from the country provide their patients and clients with a high level of care.
Humor and positivity
In the face of difficult or challenging situations, members of the community are encouraged to look at the
brighter side of things.
The inclination for finding the good in the bad can be traced to the country’s location, which lies in the
path of typhoons and sits along the Pacific Ring of Fire. In a place where natural calamities are
commonplace, humor and positivity work as a coping mechanism, much like how some children laugh to
hide their embarrassment after slipping or falling.
Flexibility and adaptability
The term “bahala na”, which can be translated to whatever happens, happens, is one of the more familiar
phrases used in the country and is perhaps the most representative of how Filipinos value adaptability and
quick thinking. It exemplifies one’s belief in a higher power and submitting one’s fate to elements that
cannot be controlled.
People who use the term “bahala na” do not see anything wrong with it, as it serves as a sort of positive
affirmation that allows them to deal with a problem right then and there. However, those who do see it
negatively often view it as a form of fatalistic submission or a way to absolve one from the responsibility
of their actions.
Faith and religion
Spirituality is deeply ingrained in Filipinos.
Religion plays a big part in society and in the everyday lives of Filipinos.
The Catholic Church’s views still affect the passing of some laws, most towns still hold fiestas to honor
their patron saints, and many regular non-working national holidays are dedicated to celebrating various
religious activities and events.
Religion helps shape their values and principles.
Filipino hospitality
Filipinos in the country and around the globe can be expected to extend a warm welcome to their guests
regardless of where they come from, how well they know their host, and why they’re visiting someone’s
home.
Hosts typically provide their guest with food and entertainment and, if there’s time, a tour around the
local destinations.
Before they leave, guests are entreated to take home pasalubong or souvenirs, which often come in the
form of delicacies and local sweets.